Funny thread. I am teaching a "senior" class through OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at UT El Paso in January named "If you can make a PB&J sandwich, you can program a computer". Livecode, of course.

Funny thread. I am teaching a "senior" class through OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at UT El Paso in January named "If you can make a PB&J sandwich, you can program a computer". Livecode, of course.

That would make a super guest blog post. If you can spare a few minutes to describe it (the blog is very informal, don't worry about making everything perfect), please consider dropping a note to Heather at support AT livecode.com to get details on how to submit for the blog.

Richard Gaskin
Community volunteer LiveCode Community LiaisonLiveCode development, training, and consulting services: Fourth World Systems:http://FourthWorld.comLiveCode User Group on Facebook :http://FaceBook.com/groups/LiveCodeUsers/

I started like 3 years ago with livecode. So still very very much to learn.
I created some things because (like Tesla) i first think of it how it should be and then create, and facing all obstacles i turn to this great community for help. (probably most people do, except Tesla had the ability to test it all the way in his mind until it worked, then build it)
And try when i can to return some help too.
What i really learned from livecode, is to see how things actually work.

Now after this time with livecode it becomes easier to see thru other programming languages too, which does not mean i can write them too, but i can see more and more how it works. And also that a lot of languages are nearly the same except from differences in ; : "'{ ] { } and where to put those and other nasty things.

Maybe people should start with Livecode, then later start with other languages if they want. So you can implement those in... Livecode again

Good point. That is one of the strengths of LiveCode. Not only is it an easy starter language, but because it is script driven,it is a good transition to harder and more traditional languages like Python and Java.

I found out the same with my classes.
When we started with Python first, some students were struggling by the end of the semester. They enjoyed switching to LiveCode.
When we started with LiveCode, then switched to Python, they whizzed through the Python lessons in record time. We even had time to spend a few months on Java before the year was over.

Doing LiveCode first enables students to get a good understanding of CS concepts and thinking logically. Once they have the programming part down good, they find it easier to tackle declared types, zero indexing, Boolean constructs and other subtleties of the other languages.

I found out the same with my classes.
When we started with Python first, some students were struggling by the end of the semester. They enjoyed switching to LiveCode.
When we started with LiveCode, then switched to Python, they whizzed through the Python lessons in record time. We even had time to spend a few months on Java before the year was over.

That's a story that needs to be told everywhere.

Richard Gaskin
Community volunteer LiveCode Community LiaisonLiveCode development, training, and consulting services: Fourth World Systems:http://FourthWorld.comLiveCode User Group on Facebook :http://FaceBook.com/groups/LiveCodeUsers/